Three-year wait ends as Augusta childcare group wins $100k donation from Shire coffers

Councillors have finally thrown their support behind a volunteer-run organisation establishing a full childcare service in Augusta based on Hillview Road.

At Tuesday night’s Shire of Augusta-Margaret River meeting, the six attending councillors unanimously overturned an officer’s recommendation to give the Augusta and Districts Community Childcare group a gift of $50,000 plus an interest-free loan of the same amount.

Instead, applause and cheers met the decision to gift $100,000 to the volunteers outright.

Tuesday’s decision ended three years of angst for the volunteers, all of whom were working mothers desperate to meet a critical shortage in child care identified five years ago.

While councillors, in moving an alternative motion flagged by new member Cr Melissa D’Ath, said the funding was the right thing to do, shire president Julia Meldrum also noted the rigour of the process which first started in 2020.

“There has been an extraordinary amount of deliberation on this item,” Ms Meldrum said.

“Council really need to support this project.”

The move still leaves ADCC to fundraise another $50,000 to transform its base to accommodate early childhood care in addition to their after school and holiday program.

But it ends a long council process which sparked angst in the wider Augusta community.

ADCC initially secured a $200,000 grant during the shire’s COVID-19 stimulus program in 2020.

However, the shire also investigated other cost-effective options and initially committed $850,000 to upgrade the Augusta Recreation Centre which was the group’s preferred base.

As a result, the unfinalised COVID-19 stimulus grant was deferred.

When tenders exceeded the shire budget, ADCC went back into the bureaucratic process amid confusion about the shire advancing its $9 million-plus redevelopment of the Margaret River Recreation and Aquatic Centre, but not being able to afford the Augusta upgrade.

Those concerns were worsened by an August 2022 council decision not to support Cr Meldrum’s bid to reallocate $600,000 to the Augusta Recreation Centre.

Instead, five $10,000 grants were advertised for family daycare providers — but there was just one applicant.

While childcare is not a local government responsibility, the shire’s own out-of-hours care program ran at a loss this year due to the Recreation Centre project disruption, while the Times understands Margaret River Community Childcare operates from a ratepayer-owned base on a peppercorn lease.

In the interim, Warren-Blackwood MLA Jane Kelsbie brokered a lease for a disused State Government-owned house on Hillview Road.

In addition to the lease and $250,000 pledged by Labor last year, the Times understands Ms Kelsbie scrounged up an extra $150,000 to help ADCC.

The bill left ADCC needing $150,000 prior to Tuesday night’s decision.